All the Devils' hottest news, from notes to numbers to neutral-zone traps

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Right wing Petr Sykora admitted that he intentionally pulled a fast one on the referees by going to the penalty box to serve a high-sticking double minor that Patrik Elias actually committed 37 seconds into the third period of the Devils' 4-1 loss in Pittsburgh tonight.

The referees announced the double minor on "No. 26 New Jersey", but Sykora went to the box instead. The Penguins noticed that the wrong player had gone to the penalty box and were so busy yelling at the officials that they weren't ready for the faceoff in the Devils' end that began the power play. The linesmen just dropped the puck, giving Brad Mills a free win on the faceoff for the Devils.

Then, the trick paid off when Elias tied the game at 1 with a shorthanded goal at 1:47..

“I was unrespectful to the referee, but I was trying to help my team,” Sykora said. “I didn’t want to have Patty go to the penalty box for four minutes. We need him on the (penalty kill). He’s on the first PK unit. I just got the idea and it worked out and Patty actually got a goal there.”

Sykora said he later apologized when one of the referees – presumably Kevin Pollock – figured out what he did and confronted him.

“He wasn’t happy and I apologized to him," Sykora saaid. "It was unrespectful from me."

Elias claimed he did not know that he was not the one who high sticked ex-Devil Steve Sullivan. The replay showed he clearly did.

"I saw it on the replay, but I seriously had no idea (at the time)," Elias said. "I thought there were three guys on (Sullivan)."

It nearly was a turning point in the game for the Devils, but the Penguins retook the lead only 1;20 later on Chris Kunitz's power-play one-timer from the right circle.

"Obviously, we still had a lot of time to kill," Elias said. "They were good on their power play even in the first period, so it was great to get that (shorthanded) goal. But, they made a nice play -- a great shot on their second goal. That shouldn't change anything for us. We really didn’t give ourselves a chance in the third period again. We played a decent first, a great second period and we’ve got to play 60 minutes in this league.”

After putting together a decent little three-game winning streak to open the season 3-1-0, the Devils lost twice -- once in a shootout -- in a little more than 24 hours to take some of the shine off their decent start. They blew leads of 2-0 and 3-2 in losing 4-3 in a shootout to the Sharks on Friday and then gave up three third period goals tonight,

“It’s definitely a little disappointing for us," Devils captain Zach Parise said. "We were getting better game to game and I think the last two definitely haven’t been our best. So, I guess we just need to address what we’ve been doing differently. We haven’t been as crisp with our passing coming out of our own zone. That’s been one big difference. We’ve been stuck in our own zone for an extended period of time and not able to get in the offensive to get some attack going.”

Tonight's loss leaves the Devils with a 3-2-1 record as they return home for one day before heading to Los Angeles on Monday for Tuesday's game against the Kings -- the second of four games in a row on the road.

“Right now it’s hard to feel too positive even though you’re trying,” said Devils goaltender Johan Hedberg, who was beaten high glove on all four Penguins’ goals. “But you have to look at the big picture anyway and get away from today and regroup for a tough next week. No one is going to feel sorry for us. We’ve got to battle back.”

The Devils have just one win in regulation – a 4-2 win over Carolina on Oct. 10 – and have been outscored 7-1 in losses to Philadelphia (3-0) and Pittsburgh – the top two teams in the Atlantic Division.

Devils coach Pete DeBoer tried to stress the positive, however, and that this team will be a work in progress over the long season.

“We just want to keep working at our game,” he said. “I think with everything we’ve gone through and a lot of new stuff, to be six games in and be a game over .500, I think we probably would have taken that to start the season and we’ve got keep building on it. There’s a lot hockey left.”

DeBoer conceded that fatigue might have been a factor in the third period with his team playing on consecutive nights for the first time this season.

"Probabaly a little bit, but that's not an excuse," he said. "I think we've got 15 back-to-backs this year, so we talked about managing those situations. We can't let the game get away from us in that spot because we're going to be in that spot again."

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.